PALOV: Drakkar, Oceanic are the Q’s top teams this year

The 2013-14 QMJHL season kicked off Thursday night in Halifax so there’s really no time to waste when it comes to making predictions.

The Mooseheads are the defending league champions and should be good enough to have an outside chance to repeat. But who is best positioned to unseat them?

Here’s my look at who is in the best shape to win the President Cup. (To be clear, this isn’t how I project the regular season standings to look at the end of the year because division winners receive the top three rankings. This is who I think will collect the most points and have the best chance to win in the playoffs.)

1. Baie-Comeau Drakkar — Head coach Eric Veilleux took a well-balanced roster and turned it into a league finalist a year ago. That experience and a comparable core of players put the Drakkar at the head of the class.

2. Rimouski Oceanic — How great is it that the two best teams in the league are bitter rivals from opposite sides of the St. Lawrence River? The Oceanic are a proud franchise with a winning tradition and have all the right pieces in place for a title run.

4. Halifax Mooseheads — The defence and goaltending are rock solid but the biggest challenge will be finding new scorers to replace Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin, Marty Frk, Stefan Fournier and Stephen MacAulay.

5. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada — The offence and goaltending are in great shape but there is a huge hole on defence after Xavier Ouellet graduated to pro hockey.

6. Quebec Remparts — Philippe Boucher left his job as Oceanic GM to become Quebec’s head coach. He will be trying to fill the void left by Patrick Roy, who moved up to the NHL to coach the Colorado Avalanche. The Remparts will be fine if Anthony Duclair and Adam Erne rebound after rocky sophomore seasons.

7. Val-d’Or Foreurs — Anthony Mantha was the only 50-goal scorer in the league last year and has a good supporting cast.

8. Chicoutimi Sagueneens — There will be lots of eyes on controversial rookie Nicolas Roy but it will be Charles Hudon and Laurent Dauphin who carry this team.

9. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies — Losing respected coach-GM Andre Tourigny to the pros will be difficult to overcome but the Huskies have enough character players to keep the team afloat under new leadership.